NEWS: Land Lines Being Phased Out on College Campuses

GEEK: Land Lines Being Phased Out on College Campuses

The overwhelming popularity of cellular phones on college campuses is leading many institutions to consider switching to wireless. Though the switch is still in a research phase at most schools, a few have made the switch or will be implementing it next year, such as Morrisville State College in New York and Marshall University in West Virginia.

The transition will have an effect on what has long been a solid source of revenue for universities.

Much of the revenue came from long distance services contracted to provide for the students.
The primary concern for many universities contemplating the switch is whether safety and services will be compromised.

This seems like a logical next step, considering many young adults I know now don't even have a land line in their apartments.

The entire time I was in college, I never once paid my phonebill. And they never did shit about it. Suckers.

Conventional phone service is definitely on the way out. Cell phones are probably the technology I see most widely embraced across just about every demographic. Hell, my grandparents have one.

Whether or not this is a good thing.....

remember the good old days when cell phones caused tumors?

what?

nothing, go on about your conversation...

What with higher bandwidth, they can also use services like Vonage.

It's not a tumah.

The article mentioned that some schools are going to provide cell phones, which I found interesting.

It would've been a lot funnier if the title had read "land mines being phased out on College Campuses", which is totally what I thought it said anyways.

Some people might have considered that misleading.

[Edited on Feb 13, 2005 by BillHaverchuck]

I wish they had done that at the College I attended for 3 years. Instead, we were so far away from civilization you had to drive 20 minutes into town to get any reception at all from any cell phone carrier. And their phone service was a really poor deal. Cell phones are quickly replacing land lines and as soon as they can get real nationwide coverage I have a feeling the takeover will become total.

Yeah, right. I'm sure "provide" means they're going to charge another 300 in fees per semester.

ditto

wait until products like Skype(Voice over IP) it's free and easy to use.

gah, but talking to people who are on cell phones is ANNOYING.

college servers are already stressed without dealing with a shitload of phone calls on the,

Yeah, and couple that with dorm room walls that are nothing but 2 feet of concrete, and you'll have nothing but a campus full of people screaming "CAN YOU HEAR ME!?!?! I SAID "THE QUAD IS WHERE WE'LL MEET", NOT "THE QUAD CITY DJ'S". FUCK IT, I'M WALKING DOWN THE HALL TO YOUR ROOM!

actually, it's "fuck it, can i IM you?"

Half of our dorms are certified as fallout shelters for the above ground levels, so I don't see this kicking in at my school anytime soon.

Concidering that my T-Mobile phone gets no service in downtown chicago - right in front of the store where I bought it, no less - those are quite valid concerns.

That, and the wide-spread use of cellphones taking up valuable airspace from radio communications which are truly useful in a REAL emergency situation.
/geek

Too bad they didn't do this when I was in college. Every Saturday morning, without fail, some duchebag from a credit card company would call at 8 a.m. with some weak-ass offer.

And 8 a.m. is an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning, whether you're a college student or not.

Some colleges have weird proprietary phone / wired internet systems that they milk for tons of cash from their students. I doubt those are going any time soon.

im glad im not in school anymore, since i never will get a cellphone and id be fucked in this instance.

Coverage issues could be eliminated with a tower on campus. Cell companies routinely share towers and stack equipment, so one or two towers would be enough.